Georgian fighter Khurtsidze jailed for 10 years

New York, United States: Former interim middleweight world champion Avtandil Khurtsidze was jailed for 10 years on Friday by a federal court in New York following charges of racketeering an fraud conspiracy, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors described the 38-year-old Georgian boxer as a "heavyweight enforcer" for the Shulaya Enterprise, a wide-ranging criminal syndicate which emerged in the former Soviet Union.

"Thanks to our dedicated law enforcement partners around the globe, Khurtsidze's reign of extortion and violence has been halted," US attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.

Indictments filed in federal court in Manhattan said Khurtsidze worked for a crime boss identified as Razhden Shulaya.